Page 18 of A Diamond for My Forbidden Bride

I’d been so angry. And beneath it, there had also been a healthy dose of confusion and shock. I’d been tumbled right back into the emotional chaos of that year when I’d fallen in love. When I’d been kissed then betrayed, and then suffered the most heart-breaking loss.

I’d been rebelling against Dad that year. He’d forbidden me from spending time with ‘those Silvera boys’, but I’d ignored him, sneaking off to the secret beach anyway, pouring out my anger to Valentin at his constant nit-picking at what he’d termed my ‘ridiculous female tantrums’, telling Val that I never wanted to run that stupid company, that he couldn’t tell me what to do. I wanted to do whatIwanted, not what he wanted.

But he had been right, my father. Ihadonly been fifteen. And, after I’d lost Valentin, all the light had gone out of the world. It had become a darker, colder place, and so I’d become a darker, colder person.

I’d put aside my grief, my silly broken heart and my childish dreams. And I’d let the pressure turn me into a diamond, because nothing could touch a diamond.

Yet somehow, Valentin’s shock return had touched me all the same. And the feelings I thought I’d excised from my heart had all returned with him.

I didn’t want to feel that way again. It had never been part of my plan. What I wanted was to run the company, shake up all those stuffy traditionalists who thought me being a woman was a disadvantage and prove my father wrong.

He hadn’t needed a son. He’d only needed me.

And it was a good thing that I was a woman, since marrying Constantine would pay off the debts my father had run up. The trade-off was having him take over for a year or two, just until the company got back on its feet again. It wasn’t ideal, having a man taking over running the place for me, but that had been his price for his financial help, and I was prepared to pay it. He was also going to give me children and I wanted that as well.

IVF had been a possibility, but the process was time-consuming and gruelling physically, and if I had a man on call then why not use him?

Really, marrying Constantine had been the perfect solution to my problems.

Until Valentin had come along and upended my entire life.

My palm kept on stinging and I could still see the flames in his black eyes and his edgy predator’s smile. He’d let me hit him. He hadn’t flinched. In fact, he’d even told me to hit him again. And then he’d wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled me close, so that all I could see were those black flames; all I was aware of was the intense heat of his body, his warm, spicy scent and the sensual shape of his mouth.

I’d remembered then our first kiss. How warm that mouth had been and how surprisingly soft. How it had felt on mine, sending shivers all over my skin.

That kiss had been magical.

That kiss had changed my life.

You want to kiss him again.

My fingers closed into a fist and I dug my nails savagely into my palm to get rid of that stinging sensation.

No, there would be no more kisses with Valentin. I’d said goodbye to the boy he’d once been and wasn’t interested in the man he now was.

He’d kidnapped me and brought me halfway around the world, and it was clear he was intending to keep me here to ‘protect me’, whatever that meant.

And the only thing I was interested in was the answers he’d give me, because that was what I was going to get from him tonight at dinner. Hewouldtell me everything. And then I’d force him to take me home.

By any means necessary.

CHAPTER SIX

Valentin

THATNIGHT, IMADEsure everything was perfect.

I had my staff arrange for a table covered with a white tablecloth to be placed on the end of the jetty. There was silver cutlery, the finest porcelain and the most delicate crystal glasses. Hurricane lamps were lit and placed at strategic points along the jetty, as well as around the table itself. The light was flickering and subtle, enough so we could see to eat, but not enough to obscure the stars.

I wanted there to be stars.

I’d also given the few house staff on the island the next two weeks off with double pay, as long as they went back to their homes on the other islands.

I wanted no interruptions. I wanted to be alone with Olivia for the next week, or even two, which hopefully would be plenty of time to bring her round to my way of thinking.

I’d spent most of the day catching up with my staff back in Europe, keeping tabs on Constantine and his reaction to my intention to remove him from his company, not to mention stealing away his bride-to-be.

My lawyers informed me that no one could get hold of him, that he’d disappeared, which was odd. Then, when I couldn’t find any mention of my triumphant return from the dead on the web, I realised that somehow he’d managed to keep what had happened out of the media. Indeed, when I finally heard from my mole in Silver Inc, I learned that Constantine had given very specific instructions that no one was to talk about me or what had happened at Domingo’s wake on pain of instant dismissal.

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